Robert Fabricant + Cliff Kuang

For a product designer, it’s hard to imagine a more perfect name than Robert Fabricant. Fabricant means maker, and Robert has had a long career making everything from medical devices to apps. Now he has collaborated with Cliff Kuang on making a book. It’s called User Friendly: How the Hidden Rules of Design Are Changing the Way We Live, Work, and Play. Cliff Kuang has an unusual resume: he’s a user-experience designer and a journalist. He has worked as the design editor at Wired magazine, and as director of product innovation at Fast Company. He’s covered design for over a decade, and was the founding editor of Fast Company’s design site co.design. This book is their first collaboration.

On this episode Debbie talks to Robert and Cliff about the history of user-friendly design and the importance of designing for feedback. “I think you have people that don’t know what they’re going to do with the feedback once they get it. And that’s scary too.”

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